Apple releases second GM of macOS Sierra days before official launch

In an unusual move, Apple on Thursday released a second gold master of macOS Sierra to developers, even though the final release of the OS is just five days away.

The new GM build is 16A323, versus the first's 16A320 designation. The latter was released eight days ago alongside GMs for iOS 10, watchOS 3, and tvOS 10, all three of which are now officially available.

Typically software creators release just a single GM, as it's meant to represent finished code. In some cases, though, Apple and other companies may spot bugs at the last minute that are critical enough to correct as soon as possible.

Sierra will be a free upgrade for Mac owners, and introduce Siri and Apple Pay to the platform for the first time. The OS will contain a number of other features as well, such as an enhanced Photos app, a Universal Clipboard, and deeper iCloud Drive integration into the file system.

Follow AppleInsider on Google News

37 Comments

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

About 8 years ago

There seems to be some wonkiness with the 2nd GM. The included redeem code doesn't seem to work, but their developers forum indicates that if you go into Purchases and re-download, it will be the most recent beta, even though the date shows last week.

B-Mc-C 41 comments · 8 Years

About 8 years ago

Soli said:

There seems to be some wonkiness with the 2nd GM. The included redeem code doesn't seem to work, but their developers forum indicates that if you go into Purchases and re-download, it will be the most recent beta, even though the date shows last week.

I think the date displayed is the date it was "purchased" (or redeemed in this case). The code should only work once; anything after that is a version update. These don't show as updates because they're technically the same version, albeit with a new build number.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

About 8 years ago

B-Mc-C said:

Soli said:

There seems to be some wonkiness with the 2nd GM. The included redeem code doesn't seem to work, but their developers forum indicates that if you go into Purchases and re-download, it will be the most recent beta, even though the date shows last week.

I think the date displayed is the date it was "purchased" (or redeemed in this case). The code should only work once; anything after that is a version update. These don't show as updates because they're technically the same version, albeit with a new build number.

Yes, you're right about the date referring to when you downloaded it, but that's a moot point. It's not showing up in the Mac App Store under downloads and when you go the developer site it gives a redeem code that doesn't work, presumably because you used it for the previous GM. The solution seems to be to go to the Purchase page and download what would appear to the old GM to get the latest GM build.

thebaz 3 comments · 8 Years

About 8 years ago

it's not the second GM, it's actually the third one. The very first was release just after the Apple Event on September 7th (build 16A319); the second one was released on September 13th (build 16A322) when Apple publicly released iOS 10. And now the third one (16A323).

ireland 17435 comments · 18 Years

About 8 years ago

How do you get it?

I tried but code by clicking the link and it didn't populate and second time I tried code it said code used. Hot corners is broken for me.